Post by David Kartos on Nov 23, 2008 18:25:25 GMT
LBL Review # 6-The Brood of the Witch Queen-Sax Rohmer,1914
"Dracula evoked many similar novels of supernatural horror, among which the best are perhaps The Beetle, by Richard Marsh, Brood of the Witch-Queen, by "Sax Rohmer" (Arthur Sarsfield Ward), and The Door of the Unreal, by Gerald Bliss"
H.P.Lovecraft,Supernatural Horror in Literature,The Weird Tradition in the British Islands
That H.P.Lovecraft would have liked "Brood of the Witch Queen" by Ward sems elmentary to anyone having read it.The question put up by such a reader would stand otherwise-how come HPL mentions it so vaguely in Supernatural Horror in Literature?Ive ponderd over this question quite a bit.
With its central figure of the corupt magician Antoy Ferrara and the horrors he evokes within London,the strange ceremonies and customs he takes part of in private,the horridly vivid descent in a narrow path down a secret road in an ancient egyptian Pyramid and witnessing of an unspeakabely horrible ritual performed by Ferrara in the secret heart of the pyramid,the monstrous misusage of a common women by Ferrara for utterly devilish purposes and the final image of his horrible end-surely theese are all things that Lovecraft would have fully endorsed.Especialy when he gave high scores to Gautier and his visions of underground tombs and ancient citadels of the unthinkabely ancient Egyptian land and of its strange and horrid mysteries.
So why did Gerald Biss get the long end of the stick in this situation?Dont misunderstand me,ive read The Door of the Unreal and found it marvelous,however it IS slightly,albeit stil perceptibly marred by the same thing which dilutes the pleasure of Bram Stoker´s Lair of the White Worm to a great decree as well-the vague mater of fact way in which the supernatural crust of the novel is explained between the characters in such a fashion that litle actual place for mystery remains. While in Biss,it happens three quarters through,the final quarter is singificantly short and strong of hapenings of other sorts to not tarnish the book in any great respect.Sadly such cannot be said about the Stoker,for there it is presented to us in the half of the book,which kind of marshes down on the suspense.
So with this brought into the mater-what remains for consideration?
"Rohmer" was able to write tosh too,like his uterly ruined "The Blue Monkey" or his yellow peril novels of no particular interest for the Weird student.However,in this book he atains climaticnes of such mastery of the horrible and the inhuman,that I am not shy to say few besides works by Lovecraft and Chambers themselves,can outmaster them.
One is lead to possibly consider the romantic element to be the reason.It is what drags down "Sinister House" in Lovecraft´s eyes,however I have to agree with Joshi saying how this is an overstatement,as it is very subtle and only as part of the plot.To top it of-Rohmer only has a prety mild description of one victorian-esque "intimate" scene and the entiery of the romantic in a 148 page edition of this book can acount for only 2 and a quarter of a page at the very most.While Biss has far more in far fewer pages.
So we will probably never know.Be it an antipathy to Ward for his other tosh works or some other aspect,however the fact that he stil notes it in his book suficiently for others to read and enjoy is stil a great plus.
End rating-10/11
"Dracula evoked many similar novels of supernatural horror, among which the best are perhaps The Beetle, by Richard Marsh, Brood of the Witch-Queen, by "Sax Rohmer" (Arthur Sarsfield Ward), and The Door of the Unreal, by Gerald Bliss"
H.P.Lovecraft,Supernatural Horror in Literature,The Weird Tradition in the British Islands
That H.P.Lovecraft would have liked "Brood of the Witch Queen" by Ward sems elmentary to anyone having read it.The question put up by such a reader would stand otherwise-how come HPL mentions it so vaguely in Supernatural Horror in Literature?Ive ponderd over this question quite a bit.
With its central figure of the corupt magician Antoy Ferrara and the horrors he evokes within London,the strange ceremonies and customs he takes part of in private,the horridly vivid descent in a narrow path down a secret road in an ancient egyptian Pyramid and witnessing of an unspeakabely horrible ritual performed by Ferrara in the secret heart of the pyramid,the monstrous misusage of a common women by Ferrara for utterly devilish purposes and the final image of his horrible end-surely theese are all things that Lovecraft would have fully endorsed.Especialy when he gave high scores to Gautier and his visions of underground tombs and ancient citadels of the unthinkabely ancient Egyptian land and of its strange and horrid mysteries.
So why did Gerald Biss get the long end of the stick in this situation?Dont misunderstand me,ive read The Door of the Unreal and found it marvelous,however it IS slightly,albeit stil perceptibly marred by the same thing which dilutes the pleasure of Bram Stoker´s Lair of the White Worm to a great decree as well-the vague mater of fact way in which the supernatural crust of the novel is explained between the characters in such a fashion that litle actual place for mystery remains. While in Biss,it happens three quarters through,the final quarter is singificantly short and strong of hapenings of other sorts to not tarnish the book in any great respect.Sadly such cannot be said about the Stoker,for there it is presented to us in the half of the book,which kind of marshes down on the suspense.
So with this brought into the mater-what remains for consideration?
"Rohmer" was able to write tosh too,like his uterly ruined "The Blue Monkey" or his yellow peril novels of no particular interest for the Weird student.However,in this book he atains climaticnes of such mastery of the horrible and the inhuman,that I am not shy to say few besides works by Lovecraft and Chambers themselves,can outmaster them.
One is lead to possibly consider the romantic element to be the reason.It is what drags down "Sinister House" in Lovecraft´s eyes,however I have to agree with Joshi saying how this is an overstatement,as it is very subtle and only as part of the plot.To top it of-Rohmer only has a prety mild description of one victorian-esque "intimate" scene and the entiery of the romantic in a 148 page edition of this book can acount for only 2 and a quarter of a page at the very most.While Biss has far more in far fewer pages.
So we will probably never know.Be it an antipathy to Ward for his other tosh works or some other aspect,however the fact that he stil notes it in his book suficiently for others to read and enjoy is stil a great plus.
End rating-10/11